EVIDENCE. KELATION TO INSECTS. 291 



army-worms. After I cut the bailey the worms commenced moving into an adjacent 

 corn-field. I thought my corn would be ruined, but to my great delight the English 

 Sparrows, tame pigeons, and blackbirds came to my aid in vast flocks, and picked up 

 and carried off the worms as fast as they emerged from the barley field. (August 8, 

 1886.) 



Maysville. A. C. Eespess: It feeds upon ants and other insects in early spring. 

 (October 6, 1886. Present seven or eight years.) 



Shelbyville. Dr. Ormsby Gray: It has been of marked benefit in some cases. It 

 feeds its young on the millers and butterflies of many destructive caterpillars, there- 

 by destroying many broods. It destroys insects, however, only when rearing its 

 young. (October 12, 1886. Present about eight years.) 



Simpsonville. E.H.George: It eats some caterpillars and some innocent worms, 

 but has been of no marked benefit. (October 15, 1886. Present about seven years.) 



Louisiana. — Barataria (country). William B. Berthoud : I have never known it to 

 destroy insects. 1 have often killed and dissected them for examination, but never 

 found any insects in them. (June 27, 1887. Present about four years.) 



Black Hawk (country). W. C. Percy, jr. : It feeds upon insects during winter and 

 spring, but I do not know upon what kinds. It does not eat the cotton-worm, and I 

 have seen but few insects in its stomach. (September 15, 1886. Present about two 

 years.) 



JDonaldsonville. L. E. Bentley : I do not know of its destroying any particular in- 

 sect, injurious or otherwise. Insects remain undisturbed in its very roosting trees. 

 October 3, 1886. Present five years.) 



Maine.— Brewer. Manly Hardy : They are said at times to eat canker-worms, but 

 close watching here has failed to see one take any kind of insect. (August 31, 1885. 

 Present about four years.) 



North Livermorc. George H. Berry : During early spring and summer it eats a few 

 insects, though rarely. It takes the canker-worm, carabid larvse, Coccincllidce (lady- 

 bugs), and rarely the vaporer moth (Orgyia). (August 23, 1886.) 



June 3, 1885, I found a nest of the English Sparrow with three young about half 

 grown. In the nest were remains of the luna and cecropia moths, and turnus and 

 antiopa butterflies ; also a single dead larva of the vaporer moth. June 12, 1886, the 

 English Sparrows (in nest just below my window) hatched and the old birds were 

 feeding them with small green worms. June 14, from 2 to 5 p. in., the Sparrows 

 brought some sixty green worms and a couple of caterpillars of Orgyia leucostigma 

 besides flies, moths, etc. July 10, 1887, there being a nest of Sparrows almost ready 

 to fly, in a box, I secured nearly twenty larvpe of Orgyia and placed them on a limb 

 just below the nest. For nearly an hour the old birds paid no attention to them, but 

 finally one of them ate one and carried three to the young ; the remainder were un- 

 molested. (July 12, 1887. Present about four years.) 



Portland. Nathan Clifford Brown: Among 15 Sparrows (14 adults and I young) 

 dissected during the four months ending July 18, 1884, only two contained any ani- 

 mal food whatever. One of these contained the remains of a small spider, the other 

 a siDgle leg of a small spider, the remainder of the food in both cases consisting of 

 cracked corn and oats. The food of the 13 remaining birds was made up almost en- 

 tirely of oats gleaned from horse droppings, two of the birds, one young, having eaten 

 in addition a little green vegetable matter, and all containing some gravel, bits of 

 coal, or brick. 



Saccarappa. Arthur H. Norton: It has been observed to feed on red ants and 

 spiders to a small extent. (October 18, 1886.) 



Maryland. — Baltimore. Otto Lugger : Early in the spring when it has young it 

 takes insects. It is very foud of winged Termitei (have seen them eating them 

 within the past week) ; it catches flies of the family Muscidce, but takes beneficial 

 species as well as indifferent ones. It destroyed (in 1835) vast numbers of the harm- 

 less seventeen-year Cicada. (May 10, 1887.) 



